Monrovia Pays Local Firm $12,200 for New Website That Never Materializes

The Monrovia City Council approved a contract this week with a second firm to redesign its website after the first company it hired failed to deliver a usable new site despite being paid an estimated $12,200, according to a city official.

The city paid local firm Mad Haus Creative a total of $19,600 to redesign its website and host its current site but the new site that the company created was inadequate, city management analyst Alexis Newell told the council Tuesday.

Mad Haus returned $2,000 to the city but the city estimates that the company collected about $12,200 for the redesign, Newell said.

City Councilman Alexander Blackburn said during the council meeting that it was "ridiculous" that the company has not returned more of the money and he called on city staff to look into potential legal action to recover more.

"I presume, when we signed that contract, that they represented that they could do the job?," Blackburn asked. "Why did we only get $2,000 back?"

City Manager Laurie Lile said she would look into trying to get more of a refund. She said she did not believe the company intended to misrepresent its ability to perform the contracted work.

"I think they gave it as much as they could," Lile said. "They were in over their heads."

Mad Haus representatives did not respond to a message left with a receptionist Thursday morning.

The city hired Mad Haus in July 2012 to redesign it's website, which was built in 2008. The contract called on Mad Haus to upgrade the site's content management system, create a new look and layout, and restructure the site. But Mad Haus was unable to complete the project because of changes in staffing at the company, according to Newell.

The company was also unable to fix the city's website after it was hacked last year, Newell said. It remains compromised, Newell said.

"Mad Haus was also unable to fix the compromised site," Newell said.

To complete the resdesign of the project, the City Council awarded a second contract worth $22,600 to Aha Consulting Inc. Tuesday. The site should take three months to build and launch, Newell said.